Since 1901, there has always been a drug store located at 1004 Main Street in Scotland Neck.

Since around the early 1920s, it has been operated by the same family — the McDowells.

The flooring of the building incorporates the original tile and the mahogany cases.

In those cases there are museum pieces of nostalgic local drug store equipment of days gone by — milkshake makers, syrups for the soda fountains and other apothecary memorabilia.

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In the back of McDowell’s Pharmacy, which was recently named the  2025 Clinical Care Champion, is a drug store as modern as any.

“We’ve continued to grow our staff,” said Thomas McDowell, the fourth generation pharmacist at the drug store. “As an independent pharmacy, we try to be always really well staffed. I think that’s something at the big box pharmacies that isn’t always the case. They’re often very lean and sometimes it makes it hard to really care for patients the way we want to care for them — spend time and talk with them.”

Thomas encourages the staff to go out front and talk to the patients. “I think that’s not the case at a lot of other places and they don’t have the time. We really emphasize that and we’ve got multiple pharmacy technicians, including several certified pharmacy technicians that are certified on the national level.”

There are multiple pharmacists and customer service clerks. “It’s really a robust staff with a lot of different roles and we’re doing other services such as adherence packaging and vaccines, medication therapy management and remote patient monitoring. We’ve grown our staff over the years to meet the needs of our patients.”

Treating customers like family

What has sustained the pharmacy for over 100 years, Thomas said, is how staff treats its customers. “We strive to treat them like family — how we would like to be treated. We view them as friends and family. And a lot of them actually are family.”

It comes down to kindness and respect, he said, “And we really try to look out for their main interest. That’s really been the main factor for us to be able to continue to be here. We have a community that trusts us and we don’t take that lightly. We really try to take care of them and go above and beyond. I think that’s continued and stayed true for each generation — from my great-grandfather to my grandfather, to my dad, and now to me. We’ve passed down that mindset — take care of the patient.”

It’s too soon to know whether there will be a fifth generation to run the pharmacy — Thomas’s children are three and two.

“He’s still a young man,” his father, Joe, says.

Joe never pressured his son to get into the family business, Thomas said. “He wanted me to be happy and when I was in high school I started thinking about it more.”

His father seemed to enjoy the business. “It was rewarding. He’s trusted and respected and I thought it would be pretty rewarding to be able to take care of your community. I made a decision to go down that path and it worked out. I haven’t regretted it. My hope would be that the pharmacy is here when my children are making that same decision as an option but I want them to be happy.”

Joe said the pharmacy has been an important part of all their lives. “He had a really good and close relationship with my father who was a second generation as I did. I was fortunate to have that. I also knew he’d be good at it. You have to have strong chemistry and math skills. It gets really competitive. He’s a competitor and he did a really good job to get into pharmacy school where he did really well.”

Carolina pride

Not only is Thomas the fourth generation of the McDowells to run the pharmacy, he is also the fourth generation to graduate from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

Their Tarheel pride runs deep.

“We grew up as big Carolina sports fans. I grew up with dad going to basketball games and football games,” Thomas said. “I was always a big supporter of the school from a young age, especially around athletics.”

When the decision was made to pursue pharmacy — “There was nowhere else that I wanted to go. I wanted to continue that legacy, but I also really wanted to go to that school — always being a fan and the quality of the school. We were named the number one pharmacy school in the country the year I graduated (2016). We were always right around the top. That was a pretty exciting moment to be involved in when I was there. It’s just a really great school from an educational standpoint.”

Nostalgia and joy

The building was built in 1901 and has continuously operated as a pharmacy since then, Thomas said. “We still have the original tile floors, the original mahogany cabinets which are in remarkable shape. They don’t make things like they used as far as quality.”

There is a sense of pride to have the original building in place. “I think there’s a lot of nostalgia and joy around the main street pharmacy that people remember because it’s always been a community hub. I kind of think about the drug store in It’s a Wonderful Life besides the error of the pharmacist but that was part of the storyline. I think people enjoy going to the pharmacy and seeing their friends and neighbors.”

Thomas said the store has always been a community hub and his family has tried to maintain as much history as they could.

He said, however, “We’ve also tried to make a lot of advancements in technology. We have automation. We have a strip pouch packaging robot that packages medication by the time and date that we package hundreds of packages a month for hundreds of patients.”

It has automated refill systems, a mobile app, and a phone system which allows customers to submit refill requests 24-7. “We try to not only bring a lot of the history and nostalgia, but also the advances in technology.”

Taking care of generations

Joe said, “It’s really rewarding personally and professionally to see that we’ve taken care of generations of residents of our town and surrounding communities which is pretty cool because everybody knows each other. That’s neat when somebody comes in and says, ‘I remember your grandfather.’”

He also remembers using the tools of his father and grandfather — particularly the iconic mortar and pestle. “I’m walking in the same period doing some of the same things they did which is pretty good and a rewarding link to our past.”

Joe remembers his father’s words. “My dad always told me if you take care of your customers, you’ll never have to worry about anything. They’ll take care of you and he was right.”

Those words stuck and he saw how well respected his father was in the community and how people looked up to him and trusted him. “I felt like that was something if I could aspire to that would be a pretty good achievement in life. I went to Carolina and just decided I would try pharmacy and see how I liked it. I never really thought about it anymore once I got up there.”

Thomas has helped to advance the business, Joe said. “He’s done so many technological advances and things to maintain the viability of this pharmacy. He’s been very innovative and very determined to have a future for pharmacy at a time when nationwide a whole lot of pharmacies are closing. To maintain this community, this main street business, I think in this day and age is very admirable.”